Simple Recipes for Cooking Healthy and Juicy Chicken in the Oven

Cooking chicken in the oven can be done easily, provided you know the right techniques. There are also a number of ways to make delicious chicken dishes by cooking it in the oven.

Tastessence Staff

Last Updated: Jul 14, 2017

To cook chicken in the oven is probably the easiest and quickest way of making delicious and healthy dishes out of it. You can even roast and barbeque the chicken in the oven to enjoy a lip-smacking and juicy chicken dish. The best method of baking chicken is to slow cook it in the oven with foil, which allows the flavors to blend well with each other and results in perfectly cooked chicken. So, for those of you who want to know how to cook chicken in the oven, here's what you can do.

Cooking Chicken in the OvenBefore you can start preparing the chicken to be cooked in the oven, make sure that it has thawed well. Chicken that has not thawed well can ruin the entire recipe. So make sure that you thaw the chicken under running water for an hour or two prior to cooking.

Ingredients

1 chicken, whole, 2.5 to 5 lbs

Olive oil

Seasoning

Foil

MethodPreheat the oven to 350° F and clean the chicken thoroughly. Dry it with a paper towel and rub some olive oil all over the chicken. Also line the baking dish with some olive oil and the foil. Place the chicken in the baking dish and season it with the required spices and herbs. Place the baking dish in the preheated oven and cook for around an hour and 30 minutes. To check if the chicken has cooked well or not, you can cut the fleshiest part of the chicken. If the meat is no longer pink, it means that the chicken has been cooked thoroughly.

Barbecue Chicken

Ingredients

1 tsp. Olive oil

1½ to 2 pounds chicken breasts, thighs and drumsticks

½ tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. pepper

1 cup barbecue sauce

MethodStart by cutting the chicken from both sides into 3 to 4 diagonal slices. Preheat the oven to 375° F. In a skillet, pour some olive oil and heat the skillet on medium heat. Add the salt and pepper to the oil and then add the chicken once the oil has heated up thoroughly. Cook the chicken until it turns golden brown on each side and then place the chicken in a baking dish. Spread some barbecue sauce on the cooked chicken. Cover the chicken with foil and place it in the preheated oven. Cook for around half an hour and then check to make sure that it has cooked thoroughly.

Oven-fried Chicken

Ingredients

3 cups buttermilk

2 - 2½ pound fryer chicken-cut up

25 butter crackers (such as Ritz), finely crushed

⅔ cup flour

1 teaspoon salt - or to taste

½ teaspoon ground red pepper - or to taste

¼ cup melted butter

MethodThaw and clean the chicken thoroughly. Then place it in a shallow dish and pour some buttermilk over it. Cover the chicken and place it in the refrigerator for an hour. After that, remove the chicken from the refrigerator, throw away the marinade and place the chicken in another dish. Prepare a mixture of the cracker crumbs, red pepper, salt, and flour and coat the chicken with this mixture. Then place the coated chicken in a baking dish lined with foil and olive oil. Drizzle some butter over and around the chicken. Place it in the oven and bake at a temperature of 375° F for an hour, until the chicken turns golden brown.

To make these recipes a success, use chicken of a good quality. Cook it with the breast side down as it allows the juices to accumulate in the breast meat. See that you don't overcook it. And most importantly, let the chicken rest for some time after it is taken out of the oven. This allows the juices to distribute evenly.